Orokin

“You're not supposed to be in here! You're going to ruin the surprise!”

This article contains spoilers about the game's lore.

The Orokin were an ancient civilization that forged the "Orokin Empire" and ruled over the Solar System for a period of time. During what was known as the Orokin Era, they built technological masterpieces that surpassed even present day technology. Their descendants are the Tenno, beings of balance and control. Although there is almost no information about the Orokin, their technology, or their disappearance, they play a crucial part in the universe of WARFRAME.

Continuity

The Orokin used a ritual known as Continuity and an elixir calledKuvato obtain immortality. This Ritual is carried out by known Orokin such as the GrineerTwin Queens, who are either Orokin or have Orokin blood running within them. It is unknown how to initiate the ritual, however during The War Within a heavy usage of Kuva was shown to be involved. The ritual allows an individual to assert dominance over one's mind and consciousness by filling them with despair until the host's body is nothing more than an empty husk. This leaves the body ripe for taking and implantation of the newly entering consciousness and removal of the old one. As such, it can be speculated that "elderly" Orokin had lived in scores of different bodies, although how they were selected is unclear. The War Within hints that they were paraded, strong and beautiful, before the Orokin bidders.

Void

The Void is a secret location which houses the Orokin Towers. These towers are equipped with many defense mechanisms, including lethal laser traps and neural sentries used to "corrupt" intruders, forcing them to fight for the tower's defense.

Corrupted

The Corrupted are Orokin controlled enemies found in Orokin Void levels. These enemies consist of various normal Grineer, Corpus and Infested infantry, but are implanted with an unknown mind-control device that allows the Orokin's Neural Sentry to control them. These enemies appear and behave similarly to their normal counterparts. They are usually the sole enemy type that the player will encounter upon entering an Orokin Tower mission.

Orokin Language

The Orokin Language is largely based upon English but with a coarser, often more phonetic spelling. The characters are diagonally slanted and are usually written left to right when on flat surfaces. Vowels take the form of polarity symbols written above the regular characters. The direction of writing frequently varies when it is found on both the left and right of an object, presumably because it was copied and flipped from one side to the other.

Although there are no live excerpts of the Orokin Language to demonstrate how it is spoken, the Lotus, Ordis, Tenno and the Red Veil presumably understand and can speak Orokin as their local language. However, given that the Stalker was also once part of the Orokin Empire and presumably spoke their language, it can safely be assumed that it is spoken in a hissing, sibilant fashion.

Infested

During the Old War against the Sentients the Orokin utilized the Infestation as a way to combat them, the most notable example of it being the creature Lephantis. Very little information remains on what their goals may have been, but this shows the Orokin had a mastery over organic and technological aspects.

Several characters in the game are suggested to either be Orokin or have direct descendance from their bloodlines. Members of the Corpus leadership claim to be of pure Orokin lineage, Alad V is addressed as an Orokin by the Sentient Hunhow during The Second Dream, and the Grineer Elder Queen is able to command the unwilling obedience of Teshin by virtue of "her Orokin blood".

So far, the only boss shown to explicitly harness Orokin technology is Captain Vor.

The Corpus Fusion MOA and Oxium Osprey are the direct result of the Corpus utilizing advanced Orokin technology, as a rare (due to cost and rarity of Orokin materials) upgrade to normal MOA and Ospreys respectively.

The word "Orokin" may be a portmanteau of the Spanish/Italian word "Oro", and the Japanese word "Kin" (金), both words meaning "Gold" which fits the Orokin's aesthetic, who predominantly use gold in their architecture and design, although the literal "gold gold" meaning makes this possibly less plausible. An alternative to "kin" is the English word referring to family or close relations, indicating a "golden family".

With the existence of Oro as an in-universe force the "Oro" in Orokin may be in reference to that, rather than any real-world counterpart.